Tombow’s Mono 100 Drawing Pencil is a world-class drawing and drafting pencil, which has been the gold standard among artists and animators. When production was discontinued in the US, thousands of letters poured into Tombow begging to bring it back. Well, it’s back, and it has been relabeled as the Tombow Mono Professional pencil. Is the Mono professional pencil as good as its predecessor?

Tombow Mono 100 and Tombow Mono Professional pencils were tested using three different leads, F, B and H.

Tombow USA insists that the pencils are the same, but there are those who just don’t believe it. Since I had samples of both pencils, I thought it would be interesting to compare the abilities of each to see if they are the same or different.

I tested the F, B and H leads of both pencils. I compared the sharpness of the lines, the depth of shading, blending and ability to erase. I also noted any difference in the feel of the pencils as I was using them. I sharpened each pencil using the same sharpener to the same thickness of point to start. These were my observations:

Overall, the lines and darkness of the leads were equal in appearance, however the Mono Professional pencils produced slightly smoother appearing blends and gradations.

I was able to produce smoother finger smudges with the Mono Professional pencils than I could with the Mono 100 pencils.

All of the Mono 100 pencils had a softer feel in the hand, the F lead feeling the softest. However, you would not know this by looking at the drawings since the Mono Professional pencils appeared smoother overall.

The Mono 100 pencils wore down more quickly than the Mono professional.

There was an equal ability to erase the gradations of both pencils, but the lines drawn by the Mono 100 pencils erased easier.

Darkness of heavily-colored areas was consistent for both the Mono 100 and Mono Professional.

The length of the Mono 100 is a little more than 1/8″ longer than the Mono professional pencil.

Lead diameters appear to be the same for each lead.

For the most part, the pencils performed equally. The Mono Professional Pencils had slightly smoother blends and finger smudges than the Mono 100 pencils. The lines created by the Mono 100 pencils were a little easier to erase.

Drawing samples from the F leads show that the lines and dark, solid areas look virtually the same but the shading of the Mono Professional Pencils appears softer.

The B leads look almost the same, but the gradations in the ball are slightly smoother on the Mono Professional pencil drawing. The lines drawn by the Mono 100 look a little heavier and darker.

The shading and smudges on the H leads look nearly identical, but the darkness of the Mono Professional pencil look a little darker throughout the drawings.

Overall, I found very little difference between the pencils. Both performed equally well and the drawings I produced looked the same. The only difference I can point out is that the Mono 100 felt slightly softer and wore down slightly faster, but the fact that it is slightly longer makes me think it will last just as long as the Mono Professional. In conclusion, I believe the Tombow Mono Professional pencils are as good as Tombow Mono 100 pencils and will perform equally well.

Like this:

I just received photos of Moleskine’s Limited-Edition PacMan Notebooks and I though you might want to take a closer look. Originally these were scheduled to be released in September, but the publication date has been pushed back to November 2010 and is subject to change.

Thirty years ago, Namco, a Japanese gaming house created not just a new, popular video game, but a cultural icon that would define the eighties; now, Moleskine’s limited-edition PacMan notebooks commemorate the hungriest video-game hero of all time. The five-piece assortment includes pocket and large-sized books, as well as a colorful Volant set in commemorative packaging.

The pocket notebooks are embossed with playful, pixilated imagery that includes PacMan, ghost characters, and fruit imagery. The larger notebooks are embossed with a glossy/matte replica of the game screen. Each notebook includes a ghost printed inside the cover and decorative sticker inserts. Back covers of each notebook feature traditional video game lines such as “Game Over”, “Insert Coin”, and “High Score.” The communication band is uniform for all of the notebooks: it shows the vast array of characters and the official Pac-Man logo with 30th anniversary information. The special-edition Volant pack includes four different colored books with an embossed silver character on each notebook.

The pocket notebooks are embossed with playful, pixilated imagery that includes PacMan, ghost characters, and fruit imagery.

The communication band is uniform for all of the notebooks: it shows the vast array of characters and the official PacMan logo with 30th anniversary information.

Vivid designs in black and yellow commemorating one of the most well-known pop-culture icons of the 20th century: PacMan.

Custom pages in the interior of the notebooks.

The special-edition Volant pack includes four different colored books with an embossed silver character on each notebook.

Volant Gift Set and Limited Edition Notebooks

Both look awesome, how do you decide which one you want?

Thirty years ago, Namco, a Japanese gaming house created not just a new, popular video game, but a cultural icon that would define the eighties; now, Moleskine’s limited-edition Pac-Man notebooks commemorate the hungriest video-game hero of all time. The five-piece assortment includes pocket and large sized books, as well as a colorful Volant set in commemorative packaging.The pocket notebooks are embossed with playful, pixilated imagery that includes Pac-man, ghost characters, and fruit imagery. The larger notebooks are embossed with a glossy/matte replica of the game screen. Each notebook includes a ghost printed inside the cover and decorative sticker inserts. Back covers of each notebook feature traditional video game lines such as “Game Over”, “Insert Coin”, and “High Score.” The communication band is uniform for all of the notebooks: it shows the vast array of characters and the official Pac-Man logo with 30th anniversary information. The special-edition Volant pack includes four different colored books with an embossed silver character on each notebook.

A big thank you to everyone who submitted a blog post for this month’s carnival of pen, pencil, and paper, and please continue to keep on submitting entries going forward. Next month, The Pen Addict will be hosting the Carnival, so submit your posts here, and many thanks to Nifty from Notebook Stories for getting this all set up!